# New musics by Jeff Parker, Susan Alcorn, Nels Cline, Trio Grande and Alex Wintz: Videos, Photos, Sounds

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2020/11/17/new-musics-by-jeff-parker-susan-alcorn-nels-cline-trio-grande-and-alex-wintz-videos-photos-sounds/
- Published: 2020-11-17T12:04:13+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

Trio Grande, “Elli Yeled Tov”

The members of Trio Grande — Israeli guitarist Gilad Hekselman, British-born saxophonist
Will Vinson and Mexican drummer Antonio Sánchez — share an effervescent spirit 
as improvisers, and the supreme technical command to give shape to any idea.

A fine, self-titled new album, just out on Whirlwind Recordings, further reveals
the generosity and ease of their rapport as a collective. Here are three accomplished
bandleaders committed to an ideal of selfless exchange, and above all to the give
and take of the moment at hand. “Elli Yeled Tov,” which Hekselman composed with 
carnival energies in mind, deftly illustrates the point. A video for the tune, which
has its premiere, was pieced together from the musicians’ home studios and living
spaces — y it nevertheless speaks of communion.

Sánchez makes the tune’s complex meter feel crisp and flowing, and Vinson’s improvisations
on alto (a brief one up top, and more later on) have a radiant spark. Hekselman’s
staccato articulation turns his guitar into another percussion instrument, but he
still works in lyrical ways: check his solo, which works in a sly quote from Prokofiev’s
_Peter and the Wolf _at 1:35.

Nels Cline Singers, “Segunda”

_Share the Wealth, _the new album by Nels Cline, covers a thrilling range of style
over the course of an hour and 20 minutes. It’s the third Blue Note release by Cline,
whose previous efforts for the label have been more moderate affairs — but it’s 
also the seventh album by The Nels Cline Singers, which has always been a band of
enthusiastic extremes. It opens with an incantatory take on “Segunda,” by the eminent
Brazilian singer-songwriter Caetano Veloso; a video for the track was shot among
the favelas outside São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

Cline patterned his arrangement of the tune after [a transfixing version](https://youtu.be/dGfQvCEaiYw)
that Gal Costa recorded for her 2011 album _Recanto. _It rides a thrumming, syncopated
drone — an ideal situation for longtime collaborator Scott Amendola on drums, veteran
associate Trevor Dunn on bass, and fellow traveler Cyro Baptista on percussion. 
The track gives Cline ample room for elaboration, which he shares with saxophonist
Skerik and keyboardist Brian Marsella — each in sharp, feverish form.

Rempis/Parker/Flaten/Cunningham, “Cutwater”

Jeff Parker has been well represented on record this year, between his own fine 
album, _Suite For Max Brown_; new efforts by Chicago Underground Quartet and Exploding
Star Orchestra; and guest spots on albums by clipping. and Andrew Bird. But it would
be a shame if all that eclipsed his work on Stringers & Struts, by a free-improv
collective whose other members are saxophonist Dave Rempis, bassist Ingebrigt Håker
Flaten and drummer Jeremy Cunningham.

[[

Recorded in 2019 at Elastic Arts as a Chicago Jazz Festival after-set, the album
stands as a testament to active listening and shifting equilibrium. “Cutwater,” 
the 20-minute-long opening track, finds Parker and Rempis setting an initial web
of delicate counterpoint, before the full band kicks in. The dynamic evolves endlessly
throughout the performance, with room enough for a texture-mad solo guitar exploration
that begins around the 8-minute mark. This is music for mind and spirit, fully expressive
at every juncture.

Susan Alcorn, “Pedernal”

Pedal steel guitar ace Susan Alcorn has long been revered in experimental circles;
for many jazzfolk, she came onto the radar via Away with You, an album by the Mary
Halvorson Octet. On her new album Pedernal, Alcorn repays the favor by featuring
Halvorson in an ensemble alongside violinist Mark Feldman, bassist Michael Formanek
and drummer Ryan Sawyer.

The title track is a fitting overture, with a melody that nods toward cinematic 
westerns. Alcorn actually wrote the theme during a monthlong retreat in New Mexico;
its title references the Cerro Pedernal mesa, immortalized by Georgia O’Keefe in
My Front Yard, Summer, 1941. The stately grandeur of the melody meets with some 
turbulent abstraction, before making a lovely turn homeward.

Alex Wintz Trio, “Textures”

Peruse the credits on some standout straight-ahead jazz releases of the last several
years, and there’s a good chance you’ll encounter guitarist Alex Wintz. A Morristown,
N.J. native, he appears on recent albums by Jeremy Pelt, Roxy Coss, Nick Finzer 
and Etienne Charles. His own new effort — Live to Tape, on the Outside in Music 
label — captures the spirit of a working trio with Dave Baron on bass and Jimmy 
Macbride on drums.

As the title implies, the album was recorded in a single afternoon, the old-school
way. From a distance, and even on closer inspection, it might seem to cast Wintz
as a traditionalist. Which is why his cover of “Textures” — as seen in studio footage
above — is such a welcome curveball. In its [original incarnation](https://youtu.be/l6CWtD4gfAQ),
on Herbie Hancock’s 1980 album _Mr. Hands, _the tune is a multitracked solo construction,
performed on an array of synthesizers. Wintz smartly adopts the song’s rhythmic 
undertow to his palette, turning it into something like the Jim Hall Trio channeling
Vernel Fournier’s “Poinciana” groove.

![Jeff Parker, whose busy year includes a turn on 'Stringer Struts,' on the Aerophonic
label.](https://i0.wp.com/www.wbgo.org/sites/wbgo/files/styles/medium/public/202011/
JeffParker_creditJIMNEWBERRYweb.jpg?resize=640%2C426&ssl=1)

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